Rockaway Beach Festival

Bognor Regis Butlins

Jan 2026

There’s something more than groovy in having done your first festival of the year, and it’s only January 5th. Iain Key and John Robb cram in as many bands as they can and don’t even get to rock away on the beach next to Bognor Regis Butlins. 

 

John Robb : In the wee small hours just after the New Year, when dusk is entwined with dawn and daylight comes at a premium, a small seaside town hugging onto the south coast becomes an unlikely hot spot of left-field musical action. Rockaway Beach’s unique USP is to go where no other festival dares to tread and throw open its doors in the early days of the dark month of early January, which has seen it become a haven for high-decibel revellers who like to give Xmas/New Year a swerve and celebrate their solstice at the holy temple of noisy musics.

Iain Key : To attempt to see every band would be foolish. Rockaway Beach is a marathon, not a sprint. Going as a punter rather than a ‘working journalist’ means the weekend is very much a holiday, an extension of the festive season although I’m sure many of the punters will try and cram as much in regardless.

This is my second time at the festival with my better half and I have already booked again for 2027, so it’s fair to say I’m a fan. I love the fact that there is a slightly older demographic compared to most festivals, however, as well as established acts, with some bordering on ‘heritage’ status, there are plenty of newer bands to enjoy too. It’s great value too.

Idlewild are the first band we see, followed by the evening headliners Soft Play. Having followed the latter since 2012’s Sugar Coated Bitter Truth EP I’d been looking forward to seeing them again since their announcement. I’ve seen them a few times over the years and they didn’t disappoint, mixing their older material with tracks from 2024’s Heavy Jelly and the extended Heavier Jelly.

Rockaway Beach has a habit of reintroducing you to bands that you have maybe played to death once upon a time since left behind. For me, Idlewild fall into this category. Unlike some of the bands playing the larger Studio 36 they own it and tracks like You Held the World in Your Arms and When I Argue I See Shapes sound as fresh and as powerful as ever.

John Robb : Soft Play make their gonzoid pop/noise racket that walks the tightrope between testosterone overload and a debunking of macho in an update of that deconstruction of the primal that perhaps Nirvana were doing all those years ago – that mix of thrilling visceral noise with a debunking of maleness whilst pounding their gear all pumped up on noise and their physicality. It’s a tricky balance, but they pull it off and have become even noisier and heavier since the last time I saw them and get the crowd slamming and stop a rare case of handbags in the mosh pit.

Long term LTW faves, ELLiS·D is owning it on the centre stage with a fascinating soupcon of twisting, twitching, thrilling music that is both minimalistic and expansive. The fidgeting music is on fire with slashing guitars and propulsive beats, kinda like a 21st centiury Talking Heads tension and release cranked through a post-punk dark energy psychedelia that pulls you into its claustrophobic faiground swirl. By day, he is the Fat Dog drummer but by night, his band makes a music that is an impatient rush of ideas and is utterly compelling space age art pop for the now. 

Mandrake Handsake bring their cosmic trip to a late slot. With hints of Goat and an added soupcon of crate digging weird and wonderful they are somehow both transcendental and subtly pulling you into their shimmering world with a music that gradually wraps around you with its multicoloured dream coat of semi psychedelic splendour. 

Iain Key: Friday closes with a trip to the Centre Stage to watch Antony Szmierek. Although he has a late slot of 23:45 and most people will have been travelling most of the day he bust on the stage with an infectious energy and effervescence. It takes a little time for some to warm to him, but thankfully most do. A group of slightly older gents in the crowd chose to depart shaking their heads but once Szmierek has that connection, we are all dancing. What I really liked was, although there were a couple of fluffs and forgotten lines in the set, he leans into it and takes it in his stride, on at least one occasion referring to it when we’d not realised. Whilst I was looking forward to seeing the Hyde born artist, I didn’t expect his set to be the highlight of the first day.

 

John Robb : Antony Smierick is the king of word flow, and the lyrics pour out of him in a waterfall of poetic lyricism. A master communicator, his lyrical flow tells stories and paints pictures whilst the band create an effortless groove behind him to bring the party as he sings, cajoles and plays with the audience – a master entertainer and onstage talisman he skanks, emotes and gets lost in his words and is completely in his element.

Iain Key : Saturday begins with Bruise Control. The musical equivalent of the icy blast you’d get walking down the Bognor Regis sea front, they certainly are a cure for any lingering hangovers from the night before as Jim Taylor and co rattles our eardrums. It’s a great tight set which lives up to the positive hype I’ve heard previously from a number of people on the Northwest punk scene.

After a bit of real fresh air and a wander down the sea front the next band, we see are Home Counties. Someone commented that the most exciting thing about them is their name, although this is a little harsh. The band have been around for a few years, and I’d previously thought of them as the ‘edgy’ artist picked up by Radio 2 to give the station some credibility, but the addition Lois Kelly takes them to another level, her vocals in particular being a highlight.

Seeing so many bands in a few days gives you an appreciation of who have a good sound/songs and who has a great stage presence. Whilst Birmingham based due GANS may have a good sound I was immediately put off by the rather needy and repetitive plea to ‘form a fucking circle pit’ towards the end of the first track which seemed to go on for a while… to be fair to them it works to a degree and people seem to enjoy it. For me just play the music and let the people enjoy it how they want to…

John Robb : To be fair, though GANS is many people’s band of the weekend and their high energy, high voltage shenanigans transcended the playpen of the circle pit – that typically American idea of organised chaos and the modern equivalent of line dancing. They create their own spectacle and the songs are huge, reaching parts many other bands can’t reach and they have that kind of high energy trajectory and certainty that IDLES had when they started to catch fire. The songs are filthy and wild and empowering and fill the room with their anthemic splendour and make a raucous change the world roar. 

Iain Key : After tea it’s time for Dry Cleaning in the Studio 36. I’d been looking forward to seeing the band but unfortunately, their sound didn’t seem to suit the larger venue, so we ventured back to Centre Stage to watch TV Smith. As you’d expect with someone whose been at it for 50 years, he’s got his stage craft nailed and needs nothing more than an acoustic guitar to keep the crowd enthralled. Smith takes us on a journey via his back catalogue, acoustic punk, not far removed from folk music, making the point via tracks like Expensive Being Poor and The Immortal Rich that some things have never really changed.

PIL are headliners on Studio 36, and I make my way over whilst my other half stays behind to watch Walt Disco, who she highly recommends. Some bands divide opinion and PIL are one of those and from some comments I saw after this gig, it was like they’d seen the second coming. I’ve seen PIL a couple of times before and whilst enjoying them I felt I was missing something. The last time I saw them in Manchester Lydon had his best mate Rambo on stage leaning against the speaker and maybe since his passing, John now feels he’s off the leash to a degree. I enjoyed Death Disco and Flowers Of Romance (possibly the highlight of the set, thanks to Mark Roberts’ percussion) whilst the closing punctuated run of Public Image, Open Up, Rise and closing Annalisa / Attack / Chant were quality though…

In stark contrast to Saturday’s first band, Sunday’s Baggio are a much more sedate offering with their relaxed Mojave 3 meet Belle And Sebastian vibes whilst also winning the award for most people on stage with 8. I’d not heard them before but will be catching up on their back catalogue. The same with Swallowtail who follow with atmospheric soundscapes and ethereal vocals punctuated with slabs of noise…

Sunday afternoon is seemingly the ‘legends’ slot, with Ruts DC appearing at this time last year. JC Carrol effortlessly holds court with The Members as the band perform a 45 minute set peppered with anecdotes and closing with Sound Of The Suburbs. Ellur is next and an act I’d been wanting to see since recently hearing the track The World Is Not An Oyster. For me this was also the highlight of her set, but that’s not to take anything away from the rest of her songs. Having not seen her live before, I’m not sure if the posturing with guitar and pointing out to people in the audience during songs is ‘standard’ but it did border on what you’d expect from a Working Man’s Club cabaret artist. That said, if it’s her thing and she’s bringing it back more power to her. I expect her to be a regular on 6 Music before 2026 is out…

The final band for us this weekend was Inspiral Carpets. I’d been looking forward to seeing them since they were announced, especially having seen them so many times over the years performing ‘hometown’ gigs. I first saw them at The International in 1988 after being introduced to them via the Garage Full of Flowers flexi that that had come with Dave Haslam’s Debris fanzine the previous year. Their set at Rockaway Beach took me back to being 18 again. Obviously, some of the personnel were different (RIP Craig) and the set was different, but they’ve stood the test of time, Steven Holt is a lot stronger singer now than he was back in the day, with his performance on The Beast Inside (trading lines with Boon) being a particular stand out. It’s great to see Martyn Walsh back in the fold too, rightfully back dominating the stage.

The band are clearly enjoying themselves and there is plenty of inter-band banter, often instigated by Boon. They deliver a career spanning set, with almost all ‘hits’ included (sadly no Keep The Circle Around) and forthcoming single, Drag The Bag already sounding like an Inspiral favourite in the making.

As you’d perhaps expect This Is How It Feels and finale Saturn 5 are highlights as the audience join in, belting them out at the top of their voices too…

John Robb : bringing the festival to a close, English Teacher somehow make their introspective and comple mix n match of post rock, post punk and angular multi thythmic indie rock work. Their musicianship is off the scale but never flash and their fluid rhythms are complicated but eminently danceable. Their songs have an emotional depth and lyrical sophistication to keep you intrigued and instead of coming out and bashing you on the head for attention, they draw you into the world, and their music acts like a spell with the shapeshifting songs being like mini worlds of their own.

Iain Key : It’s only January 5th but it’s already another year done… the anticipation starts now of who will be performing in 2027…